There's something that the San Francisco Fire Department has that no other fire departments in the United States has: wooden ladders. Why use wood? Well, San Francisco has a lot of overhead powerlines, and wood doesn't conduct electricity.

In this Vimeo clip, Adam Kaplan of ASK Media Productions tours the SFFD Wood Shop and reveals nifty nuggets of information, like how the first ladder built for the fire department was made in 1918 (still in use today) and that the Douglas Fir used has to be "aged" for 15 years in the shop.